House of the Dragon is moving forward at HBO, and it has just secured key creative player from its parent series Game of Thrones. Ramin Djawadi (Westworld, Prison Break), the in-house composer for Game of Thrones, will return to the popular fantasy franchise to score all ten episodes of House of the Dragon, as reported by Slash Film.
House of the Dragons allegedly take place approximately three centuries prior to the events of the first season of Game of Thrones, Coming Soon reports. The upcoming prequel series is reportedly based on the 2018 book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin (Beauty and the Beast, Doorways), which chronicles the history of the Targaryen family, via Coming Soon. The title of Martin’s book comes from the family’s motto, which also inspired the title of the finale episode from Games of Thrones‘ inaugural season. The episode memorably concluded with Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke, Last Christmas) being hailed as the Mother of Dragons, a moment enhanced by Djawadi’s original composition “Fire and Blood.”
Djawadi’s Game of Thrones cues were subject to accolades aplenty, not least of all a pair of Emmys for Outstanding Music Composition for Television Series. To date, Game of Thrones is just one of four shows in television history to earn two awards for its original score in consecutive years, the others being Dallas, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Downton Abbey.
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff (25th Hour) and D.B. Weiss (Leslie Jones: Time Machine) allegedly first became familiar with Djawadi’s compositional style via his soundtracks for the first-person shooter video game Medal of Honor and the action fantasy blockbuster Clash of the Titans, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “They… liked that I had lot of ethnic influence, Middle Eastern influences,” Djawadi recalled, via The Hollywood Reporter. In order to avoid comparisons to Howard Shore’s score for Lord of the Rings, Djawadi was instructed by Benioff and Weiss to steer clear of overtly folksy instruments like the flute for the Game of Thrones soundtrack, as reported by NPR Music. The Berklee College of Music graduate was instead encouraged to draw on elements of world music, according to his 2018 interview with DW News. “They wanted ‘global sound,’ I think. The fact that we are in this fantasy world with characters like Daenerys… allowed us to open the door to instruments like the taiko [drum] and the duduk,” Djawadi explained, via DW News.
House of the Dragon will star two-time BAFTA winner Paddy Considine (The Outsider, Tyrannosaur) as the gentle and genial King Viserys Targaryen. The series is scheduled to begin production in England sometime later in 2021 and is expected to arrive on HBO as early as 2022, via Coming Soon.